Cannot afford private colleges, but want to attend

Paying for College
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There are only a few ways to pay for the schools you’v listed–

  1. Full pay. Your parent pay 100% of the listed COA for you at attend.

  2. Merit aid. You win a scholarship for your academics or achievements from the college. To win merit aid you need to be among the very top applicants to the school.

Merit aid will not cover the full COA and your parents will have to pay the balance.

  1. Need-based aid. Some (but not all) schools award grants to student who need financial help to attend. Need based aid requires the FAFSA and for private colleges, the CSS Profile. For FAFSA-only schools, the amount of need will be determined mostly by your parents’ income. For private schools (like NYU), there is a more comprehensive look at their income and assets (savings, home value, investments, retirement funds. etc).

Each private college will use its own formula to determine your need. Only a few colleges promise to meet full need. None of the colleges you mentioned (NYU, American, GW) do. NYU is notoriously stingy with need-based aid.

  1. Loans. As a dependent college freshman you can only borrow a maximum of $5500/year ($6500 for sophs, $7500 for jrs and srs)

Any loans above those amounts must be taken out by your PARENTS.

  1. Some combination of federal student loans, merit aid (if you’re top student), need-based aid (if your family income qualifies you for it AND the college offers it) and your parents paying the balance

There is no magic money fairly that pays for the cost of college. You have to find something that you can pay for.

As for your question about how poor kids pay for college—they do it the same way everyone else does through a combination of merit awards, need-based aid, loans, money they’ve saved up by working.